The subject of various paracord applications is intriguing because it draws attention to the fact that survival thinking may be both short and long term. For instance, a group of friends planning a weekend camping trip in the woods will adopt a more immediate approach to survival preparedness.
On the other hand, a family or society that prepares for the various nightmare scenarios that may occur (whether driven by nature or humans) would take a far longer term view of survival. The advantage of this piece of gear is that it is applicable to both short and long term survival plans.
One of the primary advantages of paracord is its portability. After all, a person’s capacity to live is highly dependent on the equipment he carries. Even someone with extensive survival expertise will struggle if he carries very few tools or equipment. The wonderful thing about paracord is that it comes in a variety of forms, such as bracelets and keychain lanyards, that a person may wear all day.
This implies that even if you become disoriented in the woods without your pack or encounter another difficult situation, you will always have your paracord.
The essential characteristics of paracord
To have a better understanding of how paracord might be utilized in survival circumstances, it can be beneficial to learn more about the history and composition of this material. As implied by its name, this cable was initially intended for military usage. More precisely, it was utilized in World War II in troops’ parachute parachutes. This resulted in the emergence of a number of criteria for this substance.
To begin, it needed to be robust. It would be entirely unacceptable for cord to be used in parachutes that were incapable of supporting the weight of the soldier, his weapon, and all other equipment with which he was deployed.
In more literal terms, this meant that the type 3 cable, which was and continues to be the most prevalent, had to be strong enough to support 550 pounds without breaking. That is a substantial amount of weight, especially given the cord’s relatively small diameter. This 550-pound breaking threshold is also the reason paracord is occasionally referred to as 550 cord. The cable achieves this level of strength due to its construction.
On the interior of the rope, there are typically seven to nine nylon strands. Each strand is really composed of two more strands that have been twisted together, resulting in a total of 14 to 18 strands on the interior of the cord.
Bracelet Made with Paracord
The cord’s outside cover is then constructed of 32 to 36 strands of nylon that have been braided together to create a sheath-like look. This nylon composition not only provides strength to the rope, but also allows for some flexibility. Flexibility was critical for parachutes throughout the war because it allowed for some shock absorption when the parachute opened to catch the soldier.
Along with its strength and flexibility, paracord is an extremely lightweight material. For example, a type 3 cable of 225 feet or 69 meters in length will weigh no more than 1 pound. This was critical since it reduced the amount that troops were supposed to carry, allowing them to preserve their paracord for other purposes.
This minimal weight is critical nowadays since it enables paracord crafts such as bracelets, belts, and lanyards to be worn comfortably all day. Additionally, modern types of paracord come in a variety of colors, ensuring that the paracord you may be wearing looks rather nice.
Securing goods using paracord
Due to the adaptability of paracord, it has a plethora of potential applications in outdoor or survival situations. Several of these applications enable an individual to set up, transfer, and secure critical gear and equipment. This is advantageous in an outdoor setting for a variety of reasons.
To begin, equipment may go stolen or get damaged, forcing you to devise a feasible remedy while you are remote from the next store. Second, securing your stuff for transit is critical since you don’t want to lose anything unnecessarily when you’re out in the wilderness.
When it comes to how to use paracord, one of the applications for this material is to replace lost or broken gear or garment components. For instance, it is possible for the lines used to attach your tent to become dislodged or broken during shipping. This may also occur if the tent lines are exposed to excessive wind or other adverse conditions. If you have paracord, this will be less of an issue, since the cord possesses the strength and flexibility necessary to anchor a tent to the ground.
Additionally, paracord may be used for more portable items like as clothing and luggage. The cable is durable enough to serve as a substitute for shoe laces. Additionally, it may be used to repair a broken belt or bra. In the case of a bra, a cord of the appropriate length can be knotted to replace a broken strap. There are two possibilities when it comes to belts.
You may either use a piece of paracord as a makeshift belt by putting it through the belt loops and tying the ends together, or you create fabricate suspenders using two lengths of rope. Suspenders are often easier to manage than belts, as there is no need to untie and retie the rope during daily use.
Uses for Paracord
Additionally, enormous heaps of equipment may need to be moved to a lower or higher place, such as up a tree or down a steep hill. Due to its 550-pound breaking strength, paracord is ideal for these types of big weights. If the burden is really heavy, it may be able to further strengthen the rope by twisting or braiding numerous sets of paracord together. If necessary, paracord can be utilized as part of a homemade pulley system to optimize lifting force.
As you can see, paracord has a plethora of applications. Additionally, because to the variety of knots, it may be turned into a variety of objects that survivalists require at all times. To spice things up a bit, we compiled a list of the most fascinating projects and demonstrated how to complete them in our post on paracord crafts.
Increasing safety by utilizing paracord
Paracord enhances more than just convenience and carrying capacity when used outdoors. Additionally, it may be employed in a variety of ways to boost your own safety or the safety of your group. One of the most easy applications is to use the string to drag a bear bag up into a tree, where it will be out of reach of the majority of animals. This enables you to move food away from where you or your party is camping.
Animals will not be lured into your tents, bags, or supplies by the aroma of food, but will instead seek refuge elsewhere. Additionally, the bag will be out of reach, ensuring the safety of your food.
Additionally, paracord may be utilized to keep the various members of your group together. Due to the cord’s small weight, you can carry enough of it to bind individuals together without impeding mobility or increasing tiredness. This is especially beneficial if you’re forced to go in the dark and not everyone has access to light sources.
The string may be adequate to keep you all walking in a straight line and within reach of one another. This is also important if you are traveling in an area prone to avalanches or where the ice looks to be thin. The cable may help you locate other members of your party more quickly in the event that someone becomes buried in snow or falls through the ice.
Additionally, paracord may aid in safety by enabling you to barricade an area from animals or even human attackers. The rope may be used to create a variety of tripwires by attaching the lines to objects that generate noise, such as pieces of metal, bells, or other noisemakers. This enables you to determine more quickly whether anything or someone is approaching your camp, allowing you to prepare. With sufficient expertise, it will also be able to manipulate the string to create lines meant to obstruct movement or even to lay traps for approaching animals.
Securing using paracord
In the case of a survival emergency in which you are left with little supplies and must sleep above the forest or jungle floor, the paracord can be used to construct a makeshift hammock. This will involve knotting and tying the string into a net, which may then be affixed to a variety of trees.
While this is unlikely to be the most pleasant position to sleep, the cable strength will assist prevent you from falling to the earth below. This is critical because at night, a variety of insects, creatures, and predators make their way down the jungle floor.
Using paracord for medical emergencies
A medical emergency in the privacy of your own home presents a challenge. A medical emergency in the wilderness, on the other hand, is a considerably more severe concern. Contacting emergency responders may be impossible. You may need to find a route back to society while recovering from a major accident. Paracord can also be quite beneficial in these instances. A splint is one application of paracord.
Even for seasoned outdoors people, the environment may be perilous, and falling accidents resulting in fractured bones are not uncommon. A homemade splint may be created using tree branches, padded garments, and paracord to secure everything together. When applied appropriately, the splint can help prevent additional damage and allow for some movement, allowing for further assistance to be located.
In some instances, an individual may get ill or have a major injury, rendering walking impossible. To convey him or her more quickly, it is feasible to construct a makeshift stretcher. Poles can be constructed from longer tree branches, ski poles, or other equally robust equipment. The primary stretcher material might be tarpaulin or even some types of clothes, such as coats, which are then supported and connected together with paracord.
If no such clothes or material is available, it may be feasible to make the main stretcher material entirely out of paracord. The rope will simply need to be fastened to the poles and then ran in a shoelace pattern between them. While this may not be the most pleasant surface on which to sleep, the priority in this circumstance is to avoid more injuries and to expedite evacuation.
Additionally, it’s critical to bear in mind that the paracord may be cut apart to have access to the thinner, finer strands contained within. These may then be utilized in a variety of different ways. For example, if a person is injured and the wound requires suturing, it may be able to utilize the internal nylon strands as impromptu suturing material. Simply open the cord sheath to gain access to the inside threads and then untwist them to create a single thread. This will, however, require access to a needle or something somewhat similar, so keeping a needle or two in your emergency supplies is a smart idea.
Finding food with paracord
Certain survival circumstances are only temporary, lasting only a day or two. However, there are times when people must endure far longer periods of adversity. It will immediately become apparent that a means of obtaining food must be discovered; else, the situation will rapidly deteriorate. Paracord might potentially be really handy in this situation. If you or your group is placed near a body of water, fishing may be feasible. The paracord will be cut open in this case to provide access to the narrower internal threads.
These may then be used to create impromptu fishing lines. It is therefore feasible to carve wooden fishing hooks, make lures out of fabric or shining metal, and utilize a branch as a fishing pole or a post to which the line is tied.
Away from the water, it is easy to construct simple snares and other traps for the purpose of capturing small wildlife. Once you’ve determined where tiny animals are likely to travel, you may prepare traps in a variety of methods. A basic snare trap may be made by shaping an interior strand of paracord into the shape of a noose and then propped up with sticks and secured in a secure location. This might allow someone to capture and consume tiny animals with some time and good site selection.
Paracord for food
If you find yourself in an area with bird nests or tasty fruit high in the trees, a paracord can come in in in a variety of ways. It may be feasible to use the cord linked to an improvised hook to knock a nest or fruit from a tree or to move it from its current location to the ground. A more daring suggestion is to construct a homemade rope ladder that can be used to ascend to the nest or fruit.
Additionally, we have a really useful post on living in the outdoors and coping with everything it entails. Therefore, if you’re interested in learning more, check out our post on wilderness survival.
Bear in mind, however, that while paracord is meant to handle big weights, it may still fail, particularly in the case of inferior civilian versions. Thus, it is critical to use extreme caution before relying only on paracord to support a very big cargo or the weight of a human individual. In some instances, it may be preferable to braid numerous cords together or to employ extra support. While it is critical to discover new sources of food, it is equally critical to prevent injuries, particularly catastrophic ones.
There are much more other using options
When it comes to the numerous applications of paracord, these are only the tip of the iceberg. There are hundreds of more uses that impact a person’s convenience, comfort, safety, security, sustenance, and other variables when they are out in the wild.
Given the lightweight nature of paracord and its availability in a variety of suitable configurations, there is no reason why someone interested in survival should not have paracord on hand. You may wear a paracord bracelet or lanyard or carry a paracord wallet. You never know when that cord may come in handy or maybe save someone’s life.
